शिवज्ञानबोध (मेय्कण्डार - शैव सिद्धान्त का आधारभूत दार्शनिक सूत्र ग्रन्थ)

ELEVENTH SUTRA. 109
sages and writers who have loved to sing the praises of our
Kannappa.
Says our Sri Sankaracharya also in his Sivanantha Lahiri.
“ A pair of wooden shoes, worn out in paths becomes a
bunch of holy grass to the person of Siva; the spitting of water
raising the mouth, a holy bath; a mouthful of flesh partly eaten,
a fresh oblation; and a forester, a great Bhakta; for nothing is
impossible for Bhakta.
I dare not follow the subject any further.
Says our Thayumanavar.
“ அத்துவித அநுபவத்தை அனந்த மறை யின்ன மின்னம்
அறியே மென்னும்.”
(d). This is a most beautiful analogy and this being the
last, sums up briefly the whole of the doctrine expounded in all
the preceding chapters. It exhibits in clear and unmistakeable
language the passage of the soul through the Kevala, Sakala,
and Thurya Avasthas. As the first part of the illustration stands,
it would appear that it is the Sun that is enshrouded and that
which appears little by little and then shines brightly. No,
the language will be unmeaning from the stand point of the
Sun. From its position it knows of no covering or shrouds or
shining less or more. It is ever bright in itself. It is from
the stand point of the human eye that all this language is
employed. It is the eye that is enshrouded by the clouds and
prevented therefore from seeing the glorious Sun and when the
clouds are driven away little by little, the view of the Sun be-
comes better and better till at last, during the midday, the full
refulgence of the glorious Sun is felt. The brevity of language,
thus employed, in many of these analogies, have often misled
many a thinker and we find the Hindu idealists use this very
analogy to establish their theory of Ekathma Vatham. As they put
it, the clouds proceed from the Sun and then enshroud it, so Maya